By Kate Benson Medical Reporter

The Federal Government's pandemic plan, a 132-page manual issued to medics, media and the public, insists that once the world reaches phase five, Australians should stock their pantries with food and bottled water to last 14 days, check on elderly neighbours and put emergency numbers by the phone.

But yesterday a spokesman for the Department of Health and Ageing called for calm, saying the Government did not want to spark panic buying - ignoring its own plan, already issued to hospitals across the nation.

"I agree that is it confusing," the spokesman said, admitting he had not read the pandemic plan despite being employed to answer questions about it from national media. "The manual may say people should be preparing but we don't want a run at the shops," he said.

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WHO's updated alert, one step short of a full pandemic, was announced yesterday after a toddler in the US became the first to die of the disease outside Mexico.

Thermal scanners, used to detect travellers with elevated body temperatures, were turned on last night at Australia's eight international airports. Travellers with fevers were referred to doctors and made to submit to nose and throat swabs. From tonight all travellers entering the country will have to fill out health declaration cards, giving their contact details so they can be traced if swine flu is later detected among fellow passengers.

No cases have been confirmed in Australia yet, but 40 million masks have been stockpiled for delivery to hospitals and medical centres. Mortuaries and clinical waste management services have been ordered to prepare for increased activity.

The manual says health workers will be given extra gowns, gloves and anti-viral medications and front-line staff will be trained to deal with people who are frightened or panicked by the impending pandemic. If Australian cases are confirmed, elective surgery might be cancelled and some hospitals might be used exclusively for flu victims.

Residents are advised to stock their pantries with drinks, including three litres of water for each person each day, dried and long-life food such as canned meals, toilet paper, batteries, candles, matches, manual can openers and water sterilising tablets. Analgesics, masks, gloves, a thermometer, disinfectant and prescription medications should also be stockpiled and people should have enough supplies to stay in their homes for 14 days.

Householders should also have plenty of tissues, alcohol-based hand-wash dispensers in kitchens and bathrooms, and soap and disposable towels near all sinks, the manual says.

The NSW chief medical officer, Kerry Chant, warned people not to panic. "We're at a stage where we don't have any confirmed cases of influenza in the country and we're also in a stage where we're trying to understand how severe this disease is," she said yesterday.

Australia's chief medical officer, Jim Bishop, said people should be vigilant but not alarmed. Tests being carried out on 114 Australians, including 51 in NSW, were precautionary, he said. "They're not people we think have swine flu."

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Late yesterday, the WHO reported 151 confirmed cases in 12 countries. Up to 118 people in 16 countries are also suspected of having the disease.

The management plan predicts that if this pandemic is as severe as that of 1918, 2.1 million people could be affected, 25,000 could die and up to 50 per cent of the workforce could be off sick.